Monthly Archives: January 2010

Christians from Idaho, Texas and Kansas, and the State of Florida. What better way to show the face of this country? (Of course, Fox News tried to spin it so that it was the administration that was refusing the Haitians, when, in fact it was the State of Florida bellyaching over MONEY).

Reading this article — it’s as if Florida is trying to lay a Katrina on the Obama Administration. Figures. If hospitals in Florida are so worried over $100K, then I think they could look to the Red Cross or UNICEF, right? As opposed to the feds.

This looks really stinky to me.

And it sickens me. First off, the Christians should leave this alone. They have been in Haiti for a long time. Clearly, they hadn’t done much good. I’ve seen actual people doing actual good on the News Hour. Christians are more into blaming and, in this case, stealing children. Given the reputation of the most prominent Christians in this country, I wouldn’t trust them with my dog, much less a child.

It also sickens me that someone — probably a Republican operative — told Gov. Crist in Florida that it would be good politics to get out in front of this with the money argument. It reeks of politics. Just look at the comments here.

But why should anything be any different. Republicans are always looking for a payback, always looking for a setup to point back for political gain.

Sick fucks the lot of them. Seriously, why would it even get on FOX News if it wasn’t intended to be a bludgeon to bang the administration with?

Today, the Republicans had the opportunity to air all of the theories and wingnuttery that fills the AM airways. Americans who were paying attention got to hear almost every wacky criticism and complaint (except for Ayers and Rev. Wright) that the Republicans/Conservatives had to give. (And I think that, if Hannity had the opportunity to interview the President, he would woos out as well.)

While my gut feeling is that this is rope-a-dope, I don’t doubt that President Obama has been working to make things better — for everyone. I think there are people like me, whose jobs are pretty much recession-proof, but also people who have held on, who know that we are lucky. But I also think that there are people who are grateful for the extra money in their paychecks, the extension of COBRA, and the extension of unemployment benefits.

Perhaps there are also people who get — finally — that it’s more difficult than ever for good bills that will help people in general — to get passed. I don’t know.

Now that’s it’s over and Katie and Bob and whoever that other dipshit is are babbling — and now Dan Bartlett — liar person.

Idiots.

The Republicans have something different! They found a guy who is a governor and set him in front of a house that looks sort of like the chamber the president just gave his SOTU address in, filled with everyone applauding on cue — is there a sign like on The Tonight Show that flashes at certain times? “He’s just like the President!” And no doubt that will fool some people tuning in for their local news. Seriously — is there anyone in that chamber that doesn’t clap on cue?

For all of the droopiness I felt last week, this week has been better for the most part. At least humor-wise.

First up: HA HA HA The 25 year old weasel who has been playing gotcha (did he get the Idea from MADTV?) with unsuspecting people not really expecting to be recorded but simply trying help their fellow humans has found himself arrested on felony charges. In other words, James O’Keefe is in a world of trouble. He’s innocent of the charges until proven guilty in a court of law and all that, but I think he can be judged a DUMBASS in the court of public opinion at this point. And to top it off, Pete Olson, among other Republicans — many Texans in that bunch — wasted the Congress’s time with a DUMBASS resolution honoring him. (And people bitch about Sheila Jackson-Lee . . . go figure.)

Bible-thumper darling Tim Tebow is struggling with taking a snap from under the center. Hmmm. I’m the antithesis of a football fan and have always wondered about that quarterback/center relationship, but this just screams homophobia to me. Apparently the guy prefers the shotgun — which keeps him from having to put his hands right up next to another big guy’s junk . . . (Apologies for the link; I couldn’t find the one I originally read. This one looks a little wing-nutty. Sorry.)

I’m enjoying the Republican primary debate for governor so far. Some of the wingnuts I listen to have embraced Debra Medina, others don’t know what to think or say. Some like Michael Berry are oddly silent. I would love to hear Berry weigh in on the primary. It’s likely he won’t. (Can’t offend the small but loyal listeners with anything but Democrat bashing, now can we?)

Lastly, a sigh. My reading class is sleepy and monosyllabic for the most part — which makes it extremely difficult to get a discussion going. Tomorrow they have a test, but Thursday I may try to get them to interact on the class blog that I have set up from terms past. Who knows? Perhaps they will chat with each other online more easily than in class. I’ll really push it this term.

If you are getting a paycheck, you couldn’t help but notice that your take home pay has been better since last April. Unless you are someone who can’t figure out why that happened.

The majority of the working poor in this country are white people. Yes, yes, yes, a larger portion of minorities are poor, but did the white working class people miss the fact that they got a pay boost last April? Has every single person forgotten that they essentially got a pay raise?

I think so.

Here in Houston, we have no less than four AM radio stations that spend almost every waking hour trying to tear down this presidency. You can hear their gloating on almost any channel. This is far worse than anything that happened in 2005. There is a community of people who want President Obama to be a one term president — for no other reason than to gloat over it.

With the Supreme court opinion last week and talk radio types pushing for corporations to make a stand early, I think our system will break.

One thing I know. If the system breaks, Obama is the person who I trust to fix it. Why else would he have tried to hard to be president of a broken country?

So, here we are. A nation of idiots who don’t even know how or what happens to their own damn paychecks — they just think GREAT more money. And for the house flippers and the bankers who are too scared to loan the money THAT YOU HAVE ON DEPOSIT that they use to not make loans, but keep and pay you very little if any interest — cry for them — just like Michael Berry cried for those poor bankers today.

I can’t even imagine. After Hurricane Ike, at least we knew the storm was gone. To still have such powerful aftershocks more than two weeks after the initial quake is unimaginable as far as mental health goes.

I haven’t heard any talk about violence or fear of it in the news reports for the last two days. There were conflicting reports about the Haitian government calling of rescue searches — disputed early on and then repeated by FOX News all day Saturday.

That doesn’t surprise me since Fox News Channel was one of the very few cable networks that didn’t broadcast the Hope for Haiti Now telethon.

My hope is that Fox News will finally get it right, that the local affiliates will finally get it right.

Haiti will need help for a long time. I’ve decided to think of it as a bill that I pay every month.

And because it had already started before the earthquake, reforms and rejuvenation will continue. That’s my hope.

I’ve been working and preparing for today for a while now. The first bed is in the backyard.

Here we go:

For whatever reason, this part of the yard has a lot of oyster shell in it — deep down. I had already broken it up a lot. I followed the instructions from the book and put in stakes and stings and Roberto and I tried to “level” everything.

Roberto raked the area.

I had screened some top soil the past few weekends.

I had some sand leftover from putting in the pup run in the front yard. Murph broke the bag open, so I salvaged what I could.

Tamping down the edges.

I had some topsoil from making the pup run. We mixed that with a soil amendment and the sand.

We tried the string, but it didn’t work so well. First bed, remember!

Next time we will lap the newspaper up on the sides. Since some of our soild went through the holes, I stuffed them with paper. This is not landscaping; it is gardening. But I do want it to look descent.

We watered this with the new coil hose I bought at Target (made in Taiwan!) I should have taken a pic of it. Very cool.

The first bed is almost done. It will settle and we have enough now to top it off. I will crush the pecan leaves and use them for mulch.

We’ll add the top next weekend and then I will let it settle and then use the nifty testing kit I bought to see if it is ok.

Tomorrow I will clean out the space for the Second Bed. It’s ground zero for my old makeshift compost pile, so it will take some work. We started on buying the required pieces today. I know if I did all of the beds at once, I would save money, but I’m not in a position to do that. It’s not so much more expensive. This first bed probably cost me $20.

And our little helper was tuckered later. Her paw prints are all over the new bed — but no sign of pooping or peeing so far. I will put some protective screen over it tomorrow.

It’s not even cold anymore, but Junie still knows she can come into the utility room. The loser here is Caroline — she only has two litter boxes instead of three to use.

Today was a good day. Had you asked me last year if I had a plan for either the front or back yards, I would have said no. However, now I do.